Farm Friday

Since spring field work is in full swing this week, I figured I'd start up my Farm Friday segment to give everyone an update on what we are doing on the farm.  I'm going to continue to give a Farm Friday update throughout the rest of the growing seasoning and one feature I'm going to do is show photos of the field around our acreage each week.  This will give everyone an idea on how the corn is progressing.

Field Cultivator

One thing we have been doing this week to prepare our corn fields is spring tillage with our field cultivator.  The field cultivator prepares a good seedbed for the corn by burying crop residue, as well as mixing and incorporating the soil to ensure the crop has enough water and nutrients to grow well in.

Spraying

We have also been spraying our fields before we plant them with Nitrogen and a pre-emergence herbicide.  Nitrogen helps the crops grow and the pre-emergence herbicide helps keep weeds from germinating.

Planting

We also have been planting this week.  We plant between 99 and 109 day corn.  Right now we are planting 109 day varieties and as time goes on we'll planter shorter day varieties.  This picture is from the field around our acreage.  The field is also know as "Walt's" because My Farmer's Grandpa Walt use to own this farm.  We planted a 109 day variety in this field on April 17th.  I'll be keeping an update on Walt's field throughout the season.

Also, LP has started getting in some tractor rides.  He spent a few days out in the fields this week.  The pictures are of him showing me and My Farmer that he is ready to be the 5th generation farmer in the family.  I just had to take these photos while we were taking a break.

Having LP out in the field this week participating and enjoying being a part of the family's farm operation made me so happy and proud that the Department of Labor announced yesterday that they are withdrawing the proposed child labor rules for kids working in agriculture.  They said that the decision was made in response to the "thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of the proposed rules on small family-owned farms."  I'm happy to say I was apart of those thousands of comments, not once, but twice!